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League of Extraordinary Gentlemen: Future Imperfect

Since finishing the ‘Century’ story arc of League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, Alan Moore and Kevin O’Neill have released Nemo: Heart of Ice and The Roses of Berlin, both stories that occur in parallel to the arc of ‘Century’. ‘Century’ ended in 2009, and the obvious next step for the story would be for Moore to take the series forward, chronologically, into our future of the science and speculative fiction set in 21st century.

The League of the Future

If I wanted to guess, I’d say Moore will continue the story of the League some time around 2020. This would offer a rich seam of fiction that includes the timelines of William Gibson’s Neuromancer and Phillip K. Dick’s Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep.

Moore may choose to address the entertainment industry’s current fascination with rebooting and retelling the same stories rather than creating new works. Characters could be faced with younger, updated replicants of themselves (perhaps representing their repeatedly remade movie and TV analogs), raising questions of identity and narrative cohesion.

Sci-fi is a projection of our hopes and (more often) fears for the world we live in and the landscapes it creates would be prime settings for O’Neill’s talents. Science fiction is already a part of the League cannon, with John Carter and Gullivar Jones on Mars, the Martian invasion and a Thunderbirds-esque British spaceport in Black Dossier.

A Cyberpunk League

This timeline would also allow Moore to throw Blade Runner (the film adaptation of Dick’s story) into the mix as well as Ridley Scott’s other classic, Alien, which exists in the same universe. The franchises of an all-consuming, self-replicating invasive species, would make an excellent analog for a self-cannibalizing entertainment industry. There’s also the Predator movies that can be brought in.

The ‘Century’ arc ended with Mina Murray, Emma Peel/M and Purdy being its focal characters; Ripley from Alien would be a perfect addition to this future League. If this is a direction Moore takes for the series, a second ‘Century’ arc could end in the early 2100s, This would bring the timeline forward to a point where, in Suzanne Collins’ The Hunger Games trilogy, America has become the 12 district of Panem. Will Moore bring us Mina and Katniss fighting facing off against the replicant versions of themselves?